Christoph Weckerle

Prize

Category

Awarded

Resources

study on the creative industries in Switzerland

Essay

The study is the first empirical investigation of the creative industries in Switzerland. It focuses on the design industry as a dynamic but at the same time highly heterogeneous and little investigated sector, one that may be expected to play a crucial part in ensuring Swiss competitiveness in future. The approach taken by the study provides an important basis for drawing conclusions about the innovative achievements of the design industry in the various different consumer markets.

Comment by th nominators: This study is the first to cast light, on the basis of an empirical investigation, on the importance of culture and design for the process of value added in Switzerland. As a working foundation and a basis for planning, it has great relevance for the design community.

Comments by the jury:This clearly structured and methodically faultless investigation into the significance of the private sector of the design industry directs attention to a theme that has been too little regarded in Switzerland in the past – namely, the creation of added economic value that results from such cultural and creative work, as well as the potential for innovation to be found in this sector. The study not only demonstrates the absence of any national design policy, it also points emphatically to the fateful circumstance that current political conditions actually make such a policy an impossibility. The jury would like its award of the prize to be viewed as an encouragement to the authors to take their project further, by making their findings public and so stimulating a political discussion.